Burn

Fire functions as a central symbol in Burn, evolving from its opening image of Jess stamping out a small fire to increasingly systematic implementations of destruction, tracking the progression from isolated incidents to organized violence. The symbol appears most prominently in the systematic burning of towns and buildings. The text emphasizes how structures are burned fully to the ground, as if they’d been burned intensely on purpose, indicating not random destruction but calculated erasure. This pattern continues through each new location Jess and Storey encounter, with the friends noting the odd thoroughness of the burning, suggesting an organized effort to eliminate rather than merely damage civilian infrastructure. The discovery of blackened and burned bodies among these ruins connects the fire symbol directly to human casualties, linking property destruction to loss of life.

Fire’s role as a symbol culminates in the sugarhouse scene, where armed men execute prisoners and then deliberately set the building ablaze. This incident transforms a place associated with peaceful production (as established through Jess’s childhood memories of working in Storey’s family sugarhouse) into a site of violence and cremation. The progression of the fire symbol thus traces the novel’s larger themes about how civil conflict methodically destroys not just physical structures but also social bonds and human connections.

Bridges function as a key symbol in Burn, representing both physical and social connections within society and their deliberate destruction during civil conflict. The novel introduces this symbol through the first destroyed bridge Jess and Storey discover after their hunting trip, which serves as their initial indication that society has collapsed during their absence. This discovery marks their transition from peaceful recreational activity to survival situation, with the destroyed bridge symbolizing their severance from normal civilization. The symbolic weight of bridges deepens through the revelation that Collie’s father, a colonel in the resistance, has been involved in bridge demolitions. The stockpile of C-4 explosives found in their home connects the destruction of physical bridges to the intentional severing of community connections by those in authority. This connection between parental authority and infrastructure destruction emphasizes how traditional protectors have become agents of separation, with bridge demolition serving as a tactical choice that symbolically mirrors the breakdown of social bonds.

The symbol reaches its culmination when an explosion destroys the bridge into town during Jess and Storey’s confrontation with hostile forces, physically trapping them in a dangerous situation. This moment transforms the bridge from a symbol of past destruction to an active agent in their present peril, demonstrating how the severance of connections continues to shape survival possibilities. Throughout the narrative, destroyed bridges serve as both literal obstacles and symbolic representations of how civil conflict systematically eliminates the connections between communities, supporting the novel’s broader themes about the dissolution of social bonds during crisis.